Matteo Renzi: “the Native American Home Ownership Opportunity Act of 2007 is an important piece of legislation that reauthorizes this…”

“the Native American Home Ownership Opportunity Act of 2007 is an important piece of legislation that reauthorizes this vital section 184 Native American housing program which is operated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Back in 2004, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing, chaired by former Congressman Bob Ney, held the first congressional hearing on Native American housing in the history of the United States Congress on tribal lands in Tuba City, Arizona, out west on Navajo country. And many of the folks from both sides of the aisle got together and went out there and visited the Grand Canyon and got a chance to see the Navajo Nation, the pink stones and the sands, and they got to visit the country and truly see the beauty and the conditions, but also the largest land mass of poverty in America, the size of West Virginia. And Bob Ney helped make that happen. And that hearing was important because it brought light to the challenges that face Native Americans when trying to achieve home ownership. Native Americans, as a group, have the single lowest home ownership rate in America, less than 25 percent. And the problem is especially acute on the Navajo Nation. So this section 184 program provides 100 percent guarantees to the outstanding principal and interest for single-family residential homes. And to date, over 4,200 loans have been guaranteed by this program.”